Travel Expense Rebates And Incentives Result In $40 Million FCA Settlement
Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 07.29.05
PricewaterhouseCoopers has agreed to pay $41.9 million to settle a qui tam civil False Claims Act lawsuit brought by a former partner alleging that the accounting firm had knowingly overbilled various government agencies for travel in conjunction with auditing and consulting work by failing to give the government credit for commissions, rebates, and incentives that travel companies and credit card issuers extended to the firm. The former partner turned whistleblower, who alleged that the accounting firm's management ignored internal complaints about the practice, reportedly is expected to receive between 15 and 25 percent of the government's $41.9 million recovery, plus $1.6 million in legal fees and costs.
Insights
Client Alert | 2 min read | 11.14.25
Claim construction is a key stage of most patent litigations, where the court must decide the meaning of any disputed terms in the patent claims. Generally, claim terms are given their plain and ordinary meaning except under two circumstances: (1) when the patentee acts as its own lexicographer and sets out a definition for the term; and (2) when the patentee disavows the full scope of the term either in the specification or during prosecution. Thorner v. Sony Comput. Ent. Am. LLC, 669 F.3d 1362, 1365 (Fed. Cir. 2012). The Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Aortic Innovations LLC v. Edwards Lifesciences Corp. highlights that patentees can act as their own lexicographers through consistent, interchangeable usage of terms across the specification, effectively defining terms by implication.
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.14.25
Microplastics Update: Regulatory and Litigation Developments in 2025
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.13.25
